Thoughts on this scholarship-

My first plane flight (and Little Berry's too!) ever was yesterday. We were in bed super late last night and up at the wee hours of morning heading to Atlanta on a two something hour drive in the dark, cool dewy summer light.
We flew from Atlanta to DC, and from DC to NYC. Little Berry and I struggled to keep up much of the time, but overall this was onelarge rush of adrenaline. From NYC, we flew nonstop to London. I stayed awake the entire flight, holding my daughter and watching Pappa Starbucks sleep in front of me. We were blessed with a light plane and plenty of room, and as I watched the light change across the world and the sky became unfamiliar, I realized I was on the cusp of a huge moment for myself.
The babe and I were both quite overwhelmed and I am clearly under-packed (not one single long-sleeve shirt in my bag!!) but right now, I am finally no longer STARVING, I've had a nice shower, Little Berry and Pappa Starbucks both are sleeping and I am fighting a losing battle with a new routine, as well as jetlag.
The trains (right outside our window) are loud, everything seems to be covered in graffiti, but so far everyone has been extremely helpful- twice yesterday I was helped with the stroller up a flight of (huge) stairs (what's with all the stairs here, anyway?) by a complete stranger, and our hotel clerk let us in our room 3 hours early because of just how dagum tired we were.
AND fed us breakfast for free.

Tomorrow begins our first day of exploring and we will see just how lost we manage to get exploring Europe with a baby in tow. For now I will be happy if we manage to not hurt ourselves or stick out like crazy tourists.

Frustrated

Pappa Starbucks and I have been fixing
up my convertible Sebring for the past month
-it's one of those articles remaining from my oh- so
bygone days of:
watching other people's kids
until the wee hours without minding it,
cute handbags to carry MY things in,
and truly belongs underneath the couch alongside all my
other 'personal effects' -move over, broken sunglass frames!
Our move,
the trip to Europe-
it necessitates finding somewhere else
for the car because well,
we can't take it with us.
We've put probably about $700
into the repairs: brand new tires,
oil change, cosmetic repairs.
Today he is selling it to the first
looker who is planning on driving
it to Florida and selling it for twice
what he is paying us. Pappa Starbucks
came down
$300 on the price
and the guy wants us to meet him with
it at the Sears repair shop,
'cause he wants us
to put a new battery in,
and for us to pay for it.
It was listed as AS IS.
And we are due to be
out of our apartment by 8am tomorrow.
Not a single box is ready to go
because all we have done
is carcarcarcarcarcarcarcar.
Pappa Starbucks has been running
around since yesterday
(he took it to Car Max to try to sell it
...his name wasn't on the title
so it was a wasted afternoon)
dealing with these things and
I am frustrated because we
have put so much energy
and money into it.
It would have been better
to have just listed it before without
doing all the work and made the same
amount of money off of it.
And we would have had our time
back.
And then maybe we wouldn't have to stay
up until FREEKIN 2 AM
tonight loading a UHAUL.
And believe it or not, it's not that I
am upset about the car being gone
(not comfortable with putting a baby in it)
it's just that I want my
two days back.
and
I am just so damn tired
of the way he does things at the last minute.

Oh what sprinting days are these

Our lease is up in our apartment Thursday. We are tired and overworked- we have exams all this week and we are missing our graduation, which is really a relief. Add to that the fact that there are no jobs here, we are happy to shovel food in our mouths once a day for all the bustle around here, and our scholarship trip to Europe is falling to the side of our to-plan list.
I am running on empty and my temper is short.
So I am going to focus on other things until we get all of this arranged- like actually putting those boxes together. And breaking out the sharpies :)

Smoley Hokes!

Today marked something really big for me, something I almost didn't even see happening because of all the stress things happening around here.
Today I had my last day of classes in college. Tomorrow is Pappa Starbucks' last.
I am the first person in my family to finish college, and I am SO so glad to be finished with it. I really failed to enjoy the last two semesters and honestly can't believe I made it through with a newborn.
Graduation is May 10th, but we're not going because, well, have you tried graduating in this economy? No? Well, things ain't pretty.
Teach For America wait-listed dear ol' Pappa Starbucks, and as it turns out, that waitlist has gotten very long these days.
Our lease is up May 1st and our exams aren't over until the 4th so we can't exactly do anything. But we have to be out of our apt.
It's not that bad though. We're optimistic that something will work out on all fronts. On another note, I broke a toe (a TOE!) today because I am c-lumsy. And since I haven't been to the Dr. yet...I'm off to take some Tylenol PM's!

Nighty-night,

Mamma Pie

Pappa Starbucks on Christina Rossetti's "Goblin Market"

He was summarizing her poem, and said this:
"It seems as if the reader herein almost has snuck into her mind knowing exactly where to go, what to interpret, and how to feel."

This is why he is a poli sci major...and I the English.

Sigh. He's missing such literary magic!
On the other hand, look how sweet my baby is: